Joan Dee | Wedding Blog

How to Choose Your Dai Kam Jie (大妗姐)

Joan

item-9703-1397761914-f9a8364-2Photo courtesy of Edwin Tan Photography

Due to overwhelming inquiry and request from our beloved fans and members, we have put together some information for you to search for your ideal Dai Kam Jie. For brides who would like to recommend or review their Dai Kam Jie, please do so here. Watch the tradition here!

Traditionally, the ‘Dai Kam Jie’ is a female either hired by the bride’s family, or is a relative of the bride’s side, who is considered an ‘auspicious’ lady (with living spouse and children). Nowadays, the ‘Dai Kam Jie’, also known as wedding or chaperone, is a professional practice, where the practitioners have to achieve a certain level of competency in their skills and knowledge before they could qualify to handle an actual wedding ceremony.

How to choose your Dai Kum Jie:

  1. Pleasant appearance
  2. Quick thinking and observant
  3. Good with speech
  4. Well-versed in traditions, ceremonies and important customs


Their Roles and Tasks
The most important part of a wedding chaperone is to guide the couple through all the traditional customary ceremonies and rituals, particularly during the day of the wedding. Here are some parts of a wedding that may requires the help of a Dai Kam Jie. However, do discuss with your Dai Kam Jie first before the engagement as some Dai Kam Jie only provide a few of the optional services:

Throughout the ceremony, the wedding chaperon will be saying auspicious words and greetings, and if there is any uneventful happening, or a guest who came up with a less-auspicious word, it will be up to the chaperon to ‘save the day’ with another auspicious remark, while keeping the merry mood of the wedding intact.

Do’s and Don’t s of choosing your Dai Kam Jie

1. Morning only or full-day?

Unless you need a Dai Kam Jie to coordinate another tea ceremony during dinner, else it really  doesn’t worth it to spend that money. But you should know, as of 2010 November, the market price of Dai Kam Jie is about RM450 for morning session only, and about RM600 for full-day. You may not need a Dai Kam Jie for the dinner since the restaurant will include emcee for dinner and some couples had their own friends as emcee.

2. Meet your Dai Kam Jie and discuss thoroughly on service provided

If you do not want the Dai Kum Jie to talk too much irrelevant stuff during your wedding, you better make yourself clear on what are the services he/she will be providing. Do speak to your Dai Kam Jie first to understand how knowledgeable is she in the wedding traditions.

3. No extra Angpow

You do not need to pay your Dai Kum Jie additional ang pow besides the quoted fees. However, giving extra angpow is totally personal preference. If you think that this is a good implication, then just give.

4. Do not disturb the gaming session

You may tell the Dai Kam Jie about gaming time before hand and ask him/her to help remind instead of keep on commanding the Ji Muis open door. Tell your Dai Kam Jie upfront to avoid her from stealing the show.

You can find a directory of Dai Kam Jie here. Please leave your comments and reviews of any of the Dai Kam Jie you have used here!

Dai Kam Jie from Perlis. She has over 20 years of experience in her job. She is a traditional “dai kam” with the proficiency in Cantonese and Chinese language.
CONTACT – 016-202 8978 , 03-8075 4959.

Anna Wong from Jinjang. She owns a shop selling wedding groceries to serve the convenience of the couples yet preserving the Chinese traditional culture. Anna also conduct training lessons for those who wants to be Dai Kum Jie. Successfully trained 41 Dai kum Jie so far. All of them perform well, able to speak fluently in Cantonese, hakka, hokkien and mandarin language. She has been awarded ‘ A Dai Kum Jie who is capable of leading goodness in couples and speaks well ‘ during a wedding dinner in ‘lee wang kee’ restaurant.

CONTACT – 016 2711176 / 019-3816733.

A male “Dai Kam” who is funny and hyperactive. He is also multi-talented. The Chinese Opera face (mask) changing trick performance by him was interesting. Here’s a wedding actual day video1, Video 2showing some of his work.

Wong Jie from the north of Jin Jang area, Ipoh Road. Has high proficiency in hokkien, Cantonese, hakka, mandarin language with more than 20 years of experience in this field, humorous and understanding.

CONTACT – 016 2139993 / 03-62571866

Hun Jin from the south part of Jin Jang. She can speak well in Hakka, Hokkien, Cantonese and Mandarin and has been in this field for 8 years.
CONTACT – 012 6295285 , 02 62530196
Fook Jie from Kepong, can speak well in Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Mandarin. She has 7 years of experience.

CONTACT – 012 -222 3878, 012 222 3826, 03 62801549

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Look Ngan Jie from Kepong, and can speak well in Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Mandarin. She has 6 years of experience and ranked 11th under the mentorship of Anna Wong. Heartily works for couples, speaks well, dance well and presentable.

CONTACT – 012 3762318

Linda Jie from Jalan Ipoh Batu 5 and can speak fluent Cantonese, hakka, mandarin, English and hokkien. She has 5 years of experience and have successfully conducted many jobs for western couples. She is one of the few Dai Kum who can speak well in English.

CONTACT – 017 2521818

Qiao Wan Jie from Kepong and can speak well in Cantonese, Hakka, Mandarin and Hokkien. She has over 5 years of experience and loves singing and participated in many singing contests.

CONTACT – 016 3468397

Zhuan Jie ( Grace Mak) from pudu, cheras and can speak well in Cantonese, mandarin and English. She has 5 years of experience and outperformed in a Dai Kum Jie contest held in Klang’s Hokkien Society. She is a humorous person.

CONTACT – 012 6338684, 03 21426977

Yu Ying Jie ( Jennefer) from Kepong, Sri Bintang and can speak well in Cantonese, mandarin and hokkien. She has 4 years of experience.

CONTACT – 012 3808117

Gui Fei Jie from Sri Bintang with high proficiency in Cantonese, Hakka, Mandarin, English and Bahasa Melayu. In addition, she can speak some Japanese. She has over 4 years of experience.

CONTACT – 012-606 1863

Recommended: Xue Li Jie (Shirley) from Cheras and can speak well in Cantonese, Hakka and Mandarin. She has over 3 years of experience. She is very entertaining which the older folks love. Amazingly, she sang for each couple when tea was served and could do so in a few languages. With good attitude and EQ as well as a modern appearance, she manages wedding ceremonies well.
Reviews:
1) hot-choc @ Jul 2012: I just had my AD a couple of weeks ago. Everything turned out great. My tai kam jie was good, very entertaining which the older folks loved. She prepared chocolate gold coins for the tea ceremony, as i need to give it back to the couple that i served tea to and lolipops for kids that i hand out ang pows to. She sang for each couple when we served tea and could do so in a few languages. 🙂
2) PhotoGlebe @ Mar 2011: I knew of 1 Dai Kam Jie, whose appearance is quite “in”, good attitude and good EQ. One think special about her is, she hosts the tea ceremony with singing, amazing! 歌唱大妗

CONTACT – 012 3278621

Hong Shao (a male) from Rawang and can speak well in Cantonese. He is 40 years old and the only few male Dai Kam jie in town. He has 2 years of experience and is very good at creating a good environment on the stage. He can even speak Chinese idioms fluently. Quite good publicity and received a number of interviews from NanYang news and Guang Ming news representatives.

CONTACT – 012 3419394

Xia Jie from north part of JinJang and can speak well in Cantonese, Hakka, Mandarin and Hokkien. She has over 15 years of experience.

CONTACT – 016 3670177, 03 62570791

Hui Jie started this job since the day of  her marriage and is heartily attracted to the Dai Kum’s service. She has over 3 years of experience and speak fluently in Cantonese, Hakka, Mandarin and Hokkien.

CONTACT – 016 238 8687

 

Xue Li Jie (Sally Chin) from Kepong and can speak well in Cantonese, Mandarin, Hakka and Hokkien.

CONTACT – 012 3816112

 

Ru Yii Jie (Evon Lee) and has 7 years of experience and can speak fluently in Cantonese, Mandarin, Hakka and Hokkien. She loves singing and has outperformed in a Dai Kum Jie contest held in Klang’s Hokkien Society.

CONTACT – 012 222 3878

Mei Jie, she has lots of friends and colleagues working in the same industry. She handles marriage arrangements seriously and will try her very best to ensure things go alright.

CONTACT – 017 6059866

Gui Jie has 6 years of experience and speaks fluent Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien and Hakka. She practices the principles of obeying requests and self- improvement.

CONTACT – 016 6986610

Kim. Since 2007 she has been working with English speaking couples, who wanted a Chinese traditional wedding but do not know how to go about it.
Tel : 016-6261673 or email : kim88@gmail.com

Other recommendations (but no pictures):

Xin Jie
Tel: 016-2785507, 012-2920337
Review from Malaysia Brides: Her hilarious words of good wishes had everyone laughing their hearts out. The phrases weren’t too traditional yet meaningful. The guests and family members complimented her for the job well done. Rates: RM390 (2010)

Geng Kor
Tel: 012-5013301
Geng Kor is one of the best “Dai Kam” around. This male wedding chaperone is fun and friendly. Reviews: “You may contact this Gengko, he is a male tai kum, my cousins sister hired him and he is quite fun and friendly” my cousin sister introduced”.

Doris
Tel: 016-2793185
Friendly and humorous. Rate: RM480 (2012)